Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-01-08
In MEXICO.
SOMETHING PERSONAL OF THE
NATIVE POPULATION.
Influence of Climate Upon the
People, and of the People
Upon the Climate.

Mexico which requires American drum
mers to take out a monthly license, costing
S25, before they can sell any goods in Mex
leo. This unreasonable tax Of $500 per wear
is not encouraging to those whose hearts
are set on future commercial relations with
our sister republic. If the American drum
mer was playing the part of leech in Mex
leo, despoiling the people and tempting
them to enrich the United States to their
own detriment, there would be some sense
in taxing his business, if not in prohibiting
it altogether. But instead he is bringing to
the doors of people centuries behind the
times comforts and conyeniences which
they never heard of before; introducing into
rich but neglected agricultural regions ar
ticles and implements whose possession
tends to stimulate backward races into the
task of lettering their condition, and COM
ing up within hailing distance of modern
civilization. These
DREAMY, UNAMBITI0Us CITIZENS
Are contented to go on forever in the same
old ruts, conducting their farming, mining
and manufacturing enterprises with the
most primitive implements and machinery.
Closer commercial relations with the United
States would soon change all this and ex-
cite spirit of emulation in our sleepy
southern neighbors. In imposing this vex-
atious tax, Mexico stands in her own light.
Tor no class of business men, wherever they
go, do more to foster push and enterprise
than the drummers who-though sent out
Tor the purpose of attracting trade to their
own home tirms-are yet disseminators OF
liberal commercial principles, and the first
10 catch the strong points, industrially
speaking, OF the countries they visit, and to
study their capacities with view of foster
ing practical enterprises therein, such as
Will leave those countries, as well as their
own, richer because of them.
THE MEXICAN INDIANS
Have a proverb that their hair is black
after that of the Spaniard has grown gray.
Leather-colored Methuselahs, toothless,
hairless, with skins like parchment and
the engaging look of mummies, are fire.
quently met whose grandchildren are
quite old enough 10 die. The other day a
Mexican named Jose Onofre Ojeda died in
Jalisco, whose age was lis years. He had
been thrice married, and only a wear ago
thought seriously of taking a fourth wife,
when grim death came along and stopped
his matrimonial schemes.
Not long ago an old fellow died at San
Miguel de AlleDde aged 135 years, and his
neighbors assert that until a week before
his demise he was still one of the most
vigorous men in the community. The
records of the parish church confirm his
claims to this great age.
Down in the beautiful village of Orizaba,
under the great white volcano, Martina
Riviera lived to the ripe old age of $50
years-a fact thoroughly attested. Another
woman of the same town died the previous
year at the age of 140. A local paper noted
the case the other day of a Mestizo Indian,
Juan Santiago by name, who died in 1874,
aged 143 years. This old chap left two de-
pendent grandchildren, both aged men,
whose ages were respectively Ill and 100
years. The grandfather married, as all the
Indians do, when very young, therefore it
is not surprising that he should have left
descendants who are themselves centena-
rians. The secret of
THIS EXTRAORDINARY LONGEVITY
Is their simple diet and regular habits
They say themselves that when an Indian
goes into service and eats the food of the
white men then his teeth begin to decay
and shortly he goes to pieces himself. The
tOrtiLLdS that they eat (made of corn crushed
into paste and mixed with water) keep
their teeth very white, and the lime in the
tortillas makes good bone and muscle
Apropos of the effects of food, disguised
traveller thus relieves his mind
Philosophers say that climate and diet
have a powerful effect upon morals II
this be true, can you inform me how nor
ais will develop in a climate where the rain
falls every day for six weeks and the air is
dry as powder the rest of the year, and
where the steady diet of the average citizen
nc
Without red pepper the greaser's life
would be burden to him. The pods be
uses are as long as your hand and hotter
than blast furnace, and one of them taken
inwardly will smelt all the Christianity out
of a white man in three minutes The
onions are large as soup-plate, and have
the happy knack of giving their consumer
BREATH LIKE A BUZzARD.
OF the blue beans l will simply say moth
ing. Now, when a native hives away daily
three large luxurious meals of these
edibles, and never hears a sermon, ask
you as a fair-m;nded man if you can expect
him to be sensitive ON the delicate ques-
tons of etiquette and propriety? Add tC
this load of local provisions, quart or two
ofmescal, a local liquor which will eat its
way through boiler iron in four seconds
and figure on the moral result of the fer
mentation. IT this doesn't quite solve the
problem, consider the effect of tempera-
ture of 1859 in the shade, and of sol
which is at its best when breeding tarantu
las, red ants and an affectionate domestic
insect of nocturnal habit and great rapa
city"
That class of Mexicans known to US a:
Greasers" are slowly but surely passing
away. Time was when these degenerate
descendants of the Montezumas ruled thi:
blossoming land, and lay doing in the sur
with naught to modest or to make him
afraid His adobe house was built by
long dead ancestors the sole requirements
of his larder-beans, red peppers and
garlic-grew wild all about him, and to-
bacco for the cigarettes he rolled
with two motions of thumb and finger
might be stolen almost anywhere. A
thoughtful Providence having thus pro
vided for him,
HIS SOUL SCARED NO FURTHER,
And he had nothing whatever to do but lie
in the sun and exist century or so. Now
and then Greaser residing near the Dor.
der or in the neighborhood of some rich
hacienda, was enterprising enough to in
crease his wealth by the cattle business
which he conducted on the simple but sci
entific plan of finding herd that WASH Z
too carefully watched, and taking his pick
therefrom Sometimes, Of course, the
owner of the stock demonstrated with 8
six-shooter or a vigilance committee. and
occasionally gave a necktie party in bis
honor-but there are risks in all kinds Of
business. you know. Having thus &C
ouired the nucleus of herd, without the
disagreeable necessity of bringing filthy
lucren into the transaction. all the enter
prising Greaser had to do was to liz
in the sand and watch the nucleus increase
Thus equipped with property, a Greaser''
life was mapped out, and thenceforth hi:
duty as a substantial citizen" being &C
complished, he had nothing to do but enjoy
himself. in his own oyster-like fashion, as 6
conservative aud right-minded Greasel
should. But, now, alasl the railroads anc
telegraph wires have sadly interfered with
his methods of cattle-trading, and crue
men have introduced new-fangled notion:
10 complete his ruin. His vitals are under
mined by having spelling books thrus
upon him; the beautiful patriarchal sim
piicity of his methods for acquiring prop.
erty have been shattered, aud ne is reduced
to the sad alternative of work or starvation.
FUNNY THING
Happened the other day in an Eastern city
A Young gentleman of American parent
age. who had been born in Mexico and
rassad all his life there bad occasion to